Probe Information
This Page is dedicated to information on Probes. It includes Probe buildings, abilities, and building costs. For probes skins and rewards click here. Gameplay Overview Probe players begin the game in control of their probe at the center of the map. They begin with the ability to construct several different buildings, and may immediately select up to two special abilities from the start. It's strongly recommended that new players select void prison and blink. All probes are allied with each other unless killed, at which point, they may choose to help the zealot or probes, the former of which tuns them into hunters who essentially act as weaker zealots. The game is over when either the zealot, or the last probe is eliminated. The ultimate goal of the game for probes is to kill the zealot player before he becomes so strong, that probe players are unable to establish a base and collect resources effectively. To achieve this, probes must build their economy and prevent the zealot from gaining too many resources too quickly. Probes are fragile and will usually die to a single strike from the zealot and hunters. That and the zealot's superior mobility means that probes are in grave danger if they encounter zealots beyond the safety of their walls. Probes should therefore avoid any unnecessary risks and rely on secrecy and special abilities to move around the map when they need to do so. 'Economy' There are two primary resources a probe uses: vespene gas and minerals. Vespene gas is primarily used to construct/upgrade most buildings, as well as to produce miners which are needed to collect minerals. On the other hands, minerals are needed for most mid to late game technology, as well as to increase the player's vespene income. Probes begin with the ability to construct a single free generator, which serves as their primary source of vespene gas in the early stages of the game. The generator will produce gas continuously and may be refunded for it's full cost (including previous upgrades) at any point with the salvage ability. Generators may be upgraded up to 10 times and each upgrade doubles the amount of resources it produces, starting at 1/second at level 1, and ending at 512/second at level 10. Initially, generators are self-sufficent and require only gas to upgrade, but starting at level 6, they will also require minerals. In addition, generators will require certain other buildings to at a sufficient upgrade levels in order to further upgrade them. The primary source of minerals for probes is miners which are produced from the collector depot structure. Miners must work on a mineral patch much like a regular Starcraft II worker unit, but require no base to return the resources they acquire, and will function just as well regardless of where they work. In addition, miners from the first four tiers (Professional and lower) gain double their regular income when mining from a gold mineral patch. However, higher tier miners gain insignificant benefits from gold and should generally be kept in a less vulnerable location. There are 8 miner tiers, and each tier produces more resources than the lower tiers. Players are restricted to having a maximum of 15 miners at any point of the entire game, but miners may be destroyed to make room for better ones. Alternatively, players may also trade vespene for minerals and vice versa using the market structure. This is most relevant when upgrading to a level 6 generator where it's usually better to purchase 30-40 minerals instead of producing miners. Probes can also spend any additional minerals to construct automated mines, which grant them additional vespene gas much like their initial generator, but limited only by the building space a probe is able to secure. The additional gas in turn may be used to produce better miners, which in turn enable better auto mines. The ultimate anti-zealot technology is the stalker, which requires such massive amounts of gas that it is only possible to acquire using the highest tier auto mines. Although auto mine constructors can easily be built from the collection depo, it's highly reccomended probes only invest in auto mines when they max out their generator. 'Defensive/survival mechanics' Zealot players appear on the map 30 seconds after the probes and will appear in the center where the probes initially do. They will immediately seek out probe bases and attempt to attack their walls or destroy their economy. Zealots gain resources for every successful hit they perform against a probe structure equal to the damage they deal to it (commonly referred to as "feed" by the community). In addition, salvaged generators leave behind a collectable resources for the zealot and their hunter allies. Zealots will primarily invest their resources into increased damage to improve their income and increased damage protection to allow them to survive the onslaught of probe defences, eventually becoming sufficiently strong to break down the probe walls and destroy their bases. In order to prevent this, probes have several defensive techniques at their disposal. 'Hiding' Initially, the zealot will not be aware of where probe structures are. Probes who manage to avoid discovery and focus entirely on their economy will usually end up being the strongest players in the later stages of the game. This technique is most useful early on before the player needs to establish a permanent base. Experienced players will often construct their generator in unlikely locations to evade discovery, and rely on salvaging if discovered. 'Defensive structures' Most probe buildings have very low health and are subject to instant decimation if a zealot can reach them. The only notable exceptions are the wall and the generator, and once zealot attack damage reaches 500, only walls can stop them. Since zealots need at least two tiles to pass through, walls should almost always be constructed in the middle of the ramp, allowing probes to safely utilize the build space and mineral patches beyond it, while also being able to get in and out of their base through the single tile passages on either side of the wall. Having more than one wall per base is largely redundant in most circumstances, although a temporary second wall may be used when downgrading a wall (a technique frequently used by experienced players to maximize their economic growth). Walls alone are not enough. If allowed to attack a wall unchecked, a zealot will quickly become incredibly strong and easily win the game (or more likely, annoy the probe player's teammates enough that they kick the offending player from the game). To avoid excessive feed, the probe needs to construct and upgrade turrets and prevent the zealot from attacking it for too long. How long depends on the travel distance between the middle of the map and the probe base, as well as the zealot's damage output. As a rule of thumb, turrets and abilities should be able to force the zealot to retreat after no longer than 10-20 seconds of uninterrupted attacks (further bases affording more time). This time may be further increased by using probe and probe spirit abilities to slow down the zealot's income before it needs to run away. 'Salvage and run' Unfortunately, defences cannot protect probes early on or against zealots who are much stronger than what the probes are prepared to fight off. In such circumstances, the probes rely on their ability to refund most of their buildings for the full cost of their construction and flee while the zealot retreats or is busy picking off the remains of the probe's former base. Buildings which may be salvaged include generators, walls, turrets, and markets, but not miners and auto mines. Salvage takes a few seconds to complete, during which buildings may still be destroyed, in which case, they will not be refunded. The safest way to escape a doomed base is run away once the zealot leaves to heal and upgrade, or to use the blink ability outside of the zealot's vision while he is attacking the wall. In dire circumstances, probes may simply flee right out of their front entrance, hoping the zealot will not attack them. Experienced zealots will usually avoid killing probes early on, but obviously this is not a favorable option and should only be used as a last resort. Probes should always salvage their bases in any of the following circumstances: *When the probe's base is discovered before reaching at least a level 4 generator. Even then, defending is usually more expensive than simply running away. Ideally, probes should always salvage until they have a level 6 generator and then seek to establish a mining base. This does not apply on small maps, or if there are multiple probes capable of denying zealot attacks or once the probe starts investing in unsalvagable assets such as miners and automated mining wells. *When the zealot can comfortably feed on the player's wall, unless the player is able to significantly improve their defences. *When the probe cannot prevent the zealot from breaking into their base. Mouse Role The Probes are also known as the "Mouse" in the "Cat and Mouse" type of games. The goal of the Probe is to survive and eventually kill the Zealot, or Cat, to win the game. The Probe can achieve this by making bases to stop the Zealot from feeding and killing Probes, and by creating Super Stalkers that can hunt down the Zealot. Probe Buildings Generator Generators are the primary source of vespene gas in the first 15-20 minutes of the game. Upgrading the generator as quickly as possible without allowing exessive zealot feed is the main gameplay dynamic of an early game of PvZ. Each probe player may only ever have one generator at the time, but it rebuild it if the previous one is salvaged or destroyed. Generators produce vespene gas each second at a fixed rate and can be upgraded multiple times to increase the resources they yield. Each upgrade doubles the amount of gas produced, but also has increasingly steep requirements and costs. Starting at level 2, salvaged (but not destroyed) generators will leave behind a single mineral pallet which may be picked up by zealots and hunters, but is completely useless to probes. If collected, the acquiring player will receive a fixed amount of minerals depending on the level of generator being salvaged. This pallet will expire after 90 seconds if it's not collected. Each generator upgrade also requires either a wall or market at a sufficient level in order to be upgraded, but only one of either at each stage. These structures can be subsequently salvaged after the generator upgrade if they are not currently necessary. For example, a player upgrading a generator to level 3 will require a level 4 wall, but the next generator upgrade will require only a market. In this case, players may salvage their wall and build a market until they can afford the generator upgrade. The wall may consequently be rebuild and market salvaged for the next upgrade and so on. Starting from level 5, higher tier generators have 92% damage reduction. Generators cannot be repaired. Wall This is your line of defense against the Zealot. Most bases have a ramp that only need one wall in the center to keep the Zealot out. Unlike in regular Starcraft, the Zealot is 2 spaces wide, which allows you to leave 1 wide spaces on each side of the wall, allowing probes to get in and out. The wall can be classified into 5 distinct levels: Wall, Ultra Wall, Mega Wall, Power Wall, and FInal Wall. Higher tier walls will reduce damage taken by the Zealot. Market This building is used to upgrade the Generator from level 3 to 4 and from level 5 to 6, as well as upgrading Turrets up to level 9. Probes can utilize this building to access the global exchange of minerals among all probes in the game. It is generally an important mid-game building but becomes obsolete by late-game (usually destroyed to make space). Markets do not cost minerals to build or upgrade. Turret Turrets are the primary building used to kill the zealot. They do a certain amount of damage which can be increased by upgrading the turret. Some levels of turret upgrades will require various structures such as a market, underground market, global market, and ancient library. Mercenaries Mercenaries are your secondary weapon to kill the zealot. They can be built from mercenary center. They have teleport skill and can be upgraded to also have blink skill. When used to defend, mercenaries generally are more expensive than turrets, but they can be used to help other probes. Collection Depot The Collection Depot is the building that you train miners, Automated Mine Constructors, and vehicles in. Miners gather minerals for you, and Automated Mine Constructors make Automated Mines. Automates Mines are like the next level of Generator. They are part of the Probe vs. Zealot 2 advanced economy. Vehicles help your probe and miners flee when you cannot defend the zealot. Ancient Library This building is required to build the highest level of turrets, as well as making the Zealot Detector. Zealot Detector The Zealot Detector is a probe built, stationary building that will show the location of the Zealot within a range of 20 tiles. It will also uncloak him if he is using the cloak ability. This can be useful as it allows the probes towers to get more hits in beacuse the Zealot can no longer cloak past them. Also, some towers such as T13's have a firing range larger than their detection range so it allows these towers to hit the Zealot earlier and as a result, get more hits in. The Zealot detector is not required to build anything and does not produce any resources or attack. Requires the Ancient Library to build. Costs Probe Abilities At the beginning of each round, you can select two abilities to use for the remainder of that game. Please choose wisely, as you are not able to change your abilities after your probe has learned them. There are nine different abilities, each with its own unique advantages and disadvantages in the game. They can technically be separated into two categories: 'Crowd Control Abilities (Top Row)' Void Prison -- Locks the zealot in place for four seconds by enclosing him in a bubble. While this effect is active, the zealot cannot attack or move until the ability is over. Highly recommended for all players. Chronoboost -- Temporarily speeds up a structure, allowing it to operate 30% faster for four seconds. This ability can be used on generators to increase gas income, on miners to increase mineral income, on turrets to make them attack faster, and on walls and other structures to make them upgrade faster. Gives an average of a 2.4% boost in resource income. Force Field '''-- Places a force field that lasts four seconds on the targeted location. This ability can be used to lock zealots in place and prevent them from running away if the force field is placed properly. However, during this time the zealot can still attack your structures and gain feed. '''Invulnerability -- Makes the target structure invulnerable for four seconds. During this time the zealot and hunters are unable to attack the structure until the effect wears off. This ability is mainly used to deny feed, make your probe invincible for a short period of time, or to perform certain trapping manuevers. For experienced players, this could also be used as an efficient bait/lure ability. 'Probe Mobility Abilities (Bottom Row)' Blink -- Teleports your probe from one point to another within a short distance. This can be used to teleport from high to low ground or from one platform to another close platform, as blink ignores any borders that are in the way. However, your probe is only able to blink to locations where it has vision. Advanced Blink -- This blink works exactly the same as regular blink, except that it allows your probe to teleport to locations where you have no map vision. For example, with advanced blink you can teleport from low ground to high ground with no structure placed at the destination to give you line of sight. The tradeoff is that this ability has a much longer cooldown compared to regular blink. 'Teleport '-- Teleport moves you to a targetted allied structure or unit within 30 range. If you are not within 30 range, you will start to walk to that location. It has a considerably longer cooldown than most movement abilities. 'Faster Speed '-- Permanently gives your probe +50% speed boost for the rest of the game. With this upgrade you can easily outrun an uncloaked zealot without boots. It's useful for trolling new zealots at the start of the game, however in the long run, blink provides much better mobility. 'Cloak --' Makes your probe invisible and add 50% speed boost for 10 seconds *I have not finished with this page, and will continue to edit it as I collect the rest of the information needed* Jessmess (talk) 01:31, August 2, 2013 (UTC) *Added Power 1 + Power 2 costs and changed Probe Abilities section - Parametric *Fixed grammatical errors, reformatted some headings, and added a few details to some Probe Abilities. Just added Market section and Probe Role section. - Yodamadashi *Made some minor changes and added Probe Turrets section - Parametric *Added onto Wall, changed Market health, finished Turret section (T11-13 damage), added Collection Depot, added Ancient Library, edited Zealot Detector (requirement to build), added the Cloak ability to abilities Section, and fixed some grammatical errors. - Jessmess (talk) Category:Content